Budget-Busting Subversive Lung-Buster

Rating: Null/10 (13 February 2007)

Here is the secret formula to the highest grade dope pictures: the more money the studio loses, the higher you'll get off their misery. Take a movie that was way overspent upon that made no money at all in the theater and you'll find it's a blast to smoke out to (and, my friends, The Island currently holds the record for the most money lost on a summer picture). There's a few logical reasons for this, the first being that the movies are rejected by mainstream feather-throats for being "too twisted", that elusive ingredient so crucial to herbal cinema enjoyment. A more reliable reason is that much of the over-budget when into the look of the film: art direction, make-up costume design, special lighting and camera effects; all of which are the chocolate chips in the pot movie cookie. This attention to appearance usually comes at the expense of the story's richness, which helps kill the flick in the theater but means nothing to the herbal viewer, as some will lose track of the storyline and interact with the visual framework only. Hollywood should lobby the feds for legalization because then these movies would have a chance to make the tons of money they so richly deserve during there first run. Either that or open more drive-ins. (Dear reader, if you aren't hip to drive-ins yet, twist four and drive as long as you need to get to the double feature.) Now, there's your commercial level flops and then you have you kind level budget-buster: the overpriced science fiction flick, like The Island. You don't even have to like this sort of movie to get your kite in the stratosphere off one. For the first renting feather-throat making the crossover to nickel bag land, I always recommend one of these pictures to show them what THC and a motion picture can create when working together: that sparkling sense of wonder, the mind-blowing vision splendid. That green glow when the lights go off, dig? The Island was way too subversive to succeed. Like 1984 (four leaves) and RoboCop (five leaves), The Island uses the device of a dark near future to comment on modern culture. Everyone toils away in squeaky clean land until you hit it big, win the lottery and go live the good life on this faraway tropical island, like the kind you see on the herpes ads on TV. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are two squeaky clean kids who are maybe spending to much time around doper icon Steve Buscemi. Steve Buscemi hasn't been this stoner oriented in years, looking scruffy as all hell, and it's high time. Many remember Buscemi as Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs (five leaves), but his first time his dope comet hit earth was his turn as psycho dishwasher guy in the Goldie Hahn doper epic, Criss Cross (seven leaves). The less one knows about the plot going in the better, as it is a true treat. The fiendish social commentary is juxtaposed with monstro action sequences in the style of The Matrix (six leaves), though they don't mix very smoothly here. No matter: one moment your mind is opened, the next moment a flaming helicopter is dumped in it. This movie also should be noted for the trippiest use of the color white: lots of retina burning, glare juggling shades of white. Of course, all that whitewash is covering up the dark, futuristic truthSix Leaves: Low Glow. A fine dope flick, will make your levitate.